Jus' Walking
by Proton Star
Summary: Gambit and Callisto look for a purpose. But will finding it lead to more problems?
1. Default Chapter

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, Marvel and Stan Lee do. No money being made. I also don't encourage illegal activities, this is just a fic.  
  
Characters: Gambit, Callisto, Marrow and Rogue.  
  
Rating: 12, nothing too bad. A few illegal activities. One swearword.  
  
Genre: Drama with a portion of angst.  
  
Notes: Set after the Trial in Antarctica, and after Operation Zero and Bastion and all that palaver. Not consistent with canon after that because my newsagent stopped stocking Essential X-Men. Also sorry about the formatting, for some reason, fanfiction.net is refusing to accept what I have on the computer. ~~~~  
  
The man hadn't walked far down this path when he was stopped by a woman. He shouldn't have been surprised; this was her domain after all. Admittedly she was supposed to be dead, but in his life there were more undead than in the Vampire Chronicles.  
  
"I should kill you right now, right where you stand."  
  
"If it would make you feel better, go right ahead. Gambit don't mind."  
  
Callisto hadn't expected that reaction, she had expected a fight if she ever caught up with him. Then again, she hadn't expected any X-men to be walking down here, especially not him. And it wouldn't do any good to kill him if he wanted to be killed. She put her knife back in its sheath.  
  
"What brings you here?"  
  
"Jus' walkin'"  
  
"Where are the others?"  
  
"What others? Oh, the X-men? They ain't here, chere, Gambit left, you see."  
  
That was new. "When? Why?"  
  
"Not so fast. Gambit left a week, maybe two weeks ago. Ain't looked back yet."  
  
"That doesn't explain why."  
  
"Would you believe Gambit if he said that he was sick of having everyone waiting for him to betray them? Promise Gambit one thing chere, when you kill him, look into his eyes."  
  
"So instead of waiting you've come here where you've already betrayed us."  
  
"Not exactly. Gambit been hidin' out here in the city, but today's the day of the grand anti-mutant march. Not the sort of day people like ourselves want to be walking above ground."  
  
A mutant hiding out in the tunnels like hundreds before him. "We fought our way out of a hell dimension just to kill you. We didn't expect you to be quite so human though."  
  
"Gambit disappoints himself that way sometimes."  
  
But now he was one of the hunted, today all mutantkind was, so that gave him the right to seek shelter here. For now.  
  
"So are you on your own, or will Gambit be greeting other people who want to kill him?"  
  
He'd made enough enemies to make that a possible prospect, but not today and not the Morlocks. Callisto didn't know why she wanted to tell him what was going on, but she did. Maybe it was because he was the first person she had seen for two weeks.  
  
"I'm on walkabout."  
  
"Come again, chere?"  
  
"Walkabout, you walk and you walk, and then you walk some more until you find what it is you're looking for. That was the idea anyway."  
  
"Any luck?"  
  
"None so far."  
  
"You're going to keep walking though."  
  
"Yeah. Maybe I've not walked far enough yet."  
  
"An' de Morlocks, they don't mind?"  
  
"Why should they? They've got a new leader, they don't need me anymore."  
  
"Ah."  
  
"That's what I'm walking for; I need to find a purpose."  
  
"'That case, do you mind Gambit walking wit' you, he seems to be missing that as well."  
  
They'd walked a little way, the sound of ten thousand people marching along the streets above them being their only accompaniment.  
  
"Maybe you could join another team."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Fight the good fight with people who aren't the X-men. I don't know, maybe X-Force."  
  
Gambit laughed, the idea of him being in a military unit. "Can you imagine it, 'yes Cable, sir, no Cable, sir.' The only question would be which of us would kill the other one first."  
  
"Gen X?"  
  
"Too old."  
  
"Alpha Flight?"  
  
"Not Canadian." Nor could he put on a Quebecois accent to save his life.  
  
"Excalibur?"  
  
"Now that is an idea." It did seem to have some plus points. He'd always got on reasonably well with Kurt, Kitty and all. And they were a little more grown up so they might actually deal with whatever problems they had. Then again Gambit never did so why he expected it from other people was beyond him.  
  
But that would also mean never seeing his Rogue again. Muir Island to Westchester is a long trip.  
  
"But ain't you ever heard that a Cajun shrivels up if he isn't with in a few thousand miles of the swamp." Not the smoothest of escapes but it would have to do.  
  
"No, I hadn't but I don't doubt it. Maybe you don't need to be fighting the good fight the good way at all, join Magneto and his quest." The idea had some appeal to Callisto herself, at least the Brotherhood were trying to do something for mutants, not just sitting there on their comfortable, easy-mingling asses. Magneto had probably betrayed the Morlocks somewhere along the line, but who hadn't. Everyone exploited the Morlocks.  
  
Gambit had been quiet. He realised he needed to say something, had to be careful though, the whole thing was still painful, painful and complicated to outsiders, which Callisto was. "That's not such a good idea chere, in case you didn' know, Gambit and Magneto, we haven't seen eye to eye lately."  
  
"I think you're stuck down here with me then."  
  
"That's not so bad." Gambit decided to lighten the mood. "A pretty girl, these wonderful surroundings, nothing better in the world."  
  
Just when it seemed as though he was going to break out into an old fashioned musical number, a piece of paper hit him smack on the face. It was a leaflet about the march. The green ink on the white front cover not only had writing but also a picture of him, the latest in a long line of anti-mutant senators, didn't have much on the rest of his platform, but it was enough to get him elected.  
  
"His Granddad hated blacks and his Dad hated immigrants and now he hates us. Nice to know we're hated by a proud lineage."  
  
"Yeah, and the bastard is supported by the Schechter Corp. With them paying for his campaign there's no way he isn't going to get re-elected."  
  
"Not if what Gambit read in the papers is true?"  
  
"Huh?" Callisto hadn't read a newspaper in a long time, normally they held no interest for her since they were only concerned with normal humanity.  
  
"Accordin' to the financial section, Schechter reported major fourth quarter losses and expect to be losing quite a lot more this year, especially with their competition bringing out similar tech. It's not quite as good yet, but they're working on it."  
  
"I wish that they would go bust, it might mean one less anti-mutant senator."  
  
Stirring inside his head, Gambit had the beginnings of an idea.  
  
"What are you thinking?"  
  
"That they just might go out of business if someone gave their rivals the patterns for the Schechter chip, you know the special one that is supposed to be four hundred times faster than normal."  
  
Callisto quickly saw what he was getting at. "How?"  
  
"Other companies are always willing to pay for each others' secrets. Say someone breaks into the safe and steals the blueprint. Sell them to the highest bidder, no questions asked, everyone's happy."  
  
"And I suppose the someone would be us?"  
  
"That's the idea. You're superquick , and with reflexes to match, non?" Callisto nodded. "And Gambit got skills when it comes to breaking and entering."  
  
"So they say."  
  
"We could do it."  
  
The idea appealed to Callisto, it was a damn sight better than waiting around down here for something to show up. But there was also a downside. "It's illegal."  
  
"What isn't? And look at it this way, they're a big company, no doubt they've done a few illegal things in the past."  
  
"If we get caught they'll blame it on all mutants."  
  
"Jus' have to make sure not to get caught then." "They'll come after us."  
  
Callisto didn't need to say who they were, Gambit realised that the X-men would figure out who the mysterious criminals were, and then they would come after them, and the results would not be pretty. "Yeah. Gambit don't mind taking that fall when it comes, he'll keep them busy, and you can go back to your walkabout. One job, in and out, do the business then we go back to what we had been doing."  
  
It was an attractive proposition. From what she had heard Gambit could break in, it would strike a small blow against the bigots, and after it was done she could go back on walkabout and find her purpose. Call it a small detour and maybe do something for once instead of having to react to what other people did.  
  
"Okay, let's do it." ~~~~ 


	2. Part 2 Meanwhile, back at the Mansion

Disclaimers: Still not mine, they belong to Marvel.  
  
~~~~~~  
  
Marrow crept around the house. Everything was so tense, had been tense for quite a while, but Gambit's sudden departure seemed to make it worse.  
  
No one talked about it of course; no one talked about Gambit full stop. His was notable in his absence, it was like the others were pretending he'd never existed, he was being written out of history. Photos with him in were replace by others without him, people censored their words to avoid mentioning anything connected to him. The place was buzzing with a hidden, dark something.  
  
It had been this way, tense with aggravated silences, since Antarctica, and no one would let her in on the secret. There had to be a secret, she could see that it was eating away at the rest of them. And the secret had to do with her and Gambit. The haunted look whenever Gambit's ghost was conjured up however accidentally, the way serious looking conversations fell silent when she appeared, both showed that to be the case.  
  
She could remember the day he left. He'd left a note for her, pushed it under her door. There was one for Storm too. Of course Rogue got one too, so did Wolverine.  
  
She'd found her note and read it. At first she'd been upset but then she thought it must just have been one of Bobby's jokes, Gambit wouldn't leave. The ever present smell of cigarette smoke and expensive cologne was supposed to be there at the house, made it more homely. So she marched downstairs looking for the prankster when she saw the message Gambit had left for everyone else.  
  
He'd pinned a note to the wall next to the mirror near the kitchen, he knew everyone went there so everyone would see it. It was a simple note, all it said was, 'I'm sorry for everything, and have left for everyone's benefit, au revoir, Gambit'.  
  
That he'd used a personal pronoun was enough to worry everyone. Rogue, weeping and wailing, flew off clutching her note to her chest. Storm went up to her room to meditate so everywhere was rainy, foggy and damp for the next few days. Wolverine read his note once, shredded it, and stalked off.  
  
Marrow still had her note, kept it in her rucksack along with everything else valuable. If life had taught her nothing else it was to always be prepared to move. She took the note out sometimes, to read over it and try to make sense of it.  
  
'Gambit's sorry chere, he never meant to cause you hurt, not in any way. And he knows he should have said this in person but he couldn't face it. You see, on top of all his other sins, Gambit's a coward. Someday when they think you're old enough, they'll tell you what Gambit's done and why he had to leave. For now and then, the only thing I can say is that I'm sorry.'  
  
Marrow wasn't too happy for the next couple of days, but she got over it quickly. It wasn't the first time someone she loved had vanished. It had been six months or slightly more since she'd last heard word of Callisto. And she worried about Callisto, since she'd been badly wounded the last time Marrow saw her, but she also knew that she had to carry on. Life had made her tough, so she used that toughness to her advantage.  
  
Sometimes she was tempted to ask why Gambit left, but they'd look awkward when she started and changed the subject, even Dr. McCoy who Marrow would have said was the most trustworthy person she knew. He'd look worried, sad and guilty all in one. Not a good sign.  
  
So Marrow waited. The Cajun couldn't stay out of trouble for too long and then she'd find him.  
  
~~~~  
  
End part 2  
  
Sorry for not writing more sooner. 


	3. Part 3 Thieves Together

Notes and Disclaimers: See part 1. Sorry about the huge gap between parts.

-

Of course, it hadn't finished at just one job. It had been too much of a success. So Callisto and Gambit had worked out a pattern. They would keep their eyes and ears open to find out where politicians stood on the mutant question.

If a politician had an opinion they objected to strongly, they'd find out who financed his campaign. And then they hit him where it hurt, straight in the wallet.

All in all it had been a successful day. The last company they'd hit had hired a private detective; they didn't want the police involved because they weren't up to much good themselves. Unluckily, the detective recognised Gambit's MO. He'd chased them all the way to LA and back. Luckily they'd lost him sometime ago, before they'd got back to Westchester. Apparently someone had tampered with his car. It ought to have slowed him down for long enough for them to make good their escape. No one would think of looking for them down here in the sewers.

"What are you thinking about"

"Jus' t'ings. Nothing much." Gambit took another drag of his cigarette and exhaled.

"You're missing them. I can see the signs." Callisto saw them in herself often enough. She wanted to go back to the Morlocks, but at the same time she didn't, what was the point of going back if they didn't need her. She new herself well enough to know that she couldn't just hang back and let other people make decisions.

"Not all of them." Gambit took a drag. "Just a couple. Gambit misses Oro" and Rogue, how he missed his Rogue"an' Marrow too. Gambit just wondering what she'll be doing right now."

"Getting into trouble." Marrow always got into trouble. But maybe not now, maybe she'd finally come to some sort of peace, which was why Callisto sent her away, she hoped that removing her from the Morlocks might, just might, take the edge off her bitterness. She was too beautiful to be bitter.

Trouble was, now Callisto missed Marrow too. It was a silly thing to try and get Gambit to tell her something about himself; he always seemed to make her thoughts turn inwards. "You've seen her more recently than I have, how is she"

"She's one of the most beautiful femme in the world and she don't know it." Gambit took another drag on his cigarette. "But she's getting less angry, still wants to change the world but she's willing to give talking a chance. Not much of one, but it's a start. You'd be proud of her."

"It's not much good being proud of her when I can't see her."

"She misses you too, you ought to have come up an' seen her."

"No." That's why she'd vanished. "No, she needs to meet other people, see the world, not be stuck down here like the rest of us. I don't want to hold her back."

"Callisto, she loves you and the Morlocks, ain't nothing going to change that." Marrow's loyalty would always be to the Morlocks, the same way Callisto's was. It didn't matter what the Morlocks did and would do to Callisto, she'd always go back and try to help them, no matter what the cost. The parallel with Gambit and Rogue struck Gambit again, he had to laugh. Hopeless, that was what it was; yet he was helpless to resist.

"Why don't we both get some rest? Gambit thinks we've lost our shadow for good, and we're going to need our energy for tomorrow if we're going to case the next joint."

"You don't think this week is too soon for the next attack. If that detective hears about it, he'll know it's us," or he'd know it was Gambit at least, apparently this private detective used to be in the employ of the New Orleans PD and knew the hallmarks of the Thieves Guild well. "What if he calls and tells the police or security here and then we get even more people on our tails?"

"It's a risk we'll have to take. These big companies they've already noticed a pattern and they're stepping up security and we're running out of time." If they hit hard enough, early enough then the various senators and members of congress would find it hard to run the ad campaigns that they needed. "No chere, get some sleep tonight because it's going to be non-stop from here on in."

Callisto weighed up the two arguments, she was right, this weeks was too soon for another attack, she had no doubt that the private eye would watch the news for attacks similar to that at the company that employed him, and he'd recognise their style. It would make it hard to avoid the police and other, less official, people sent to stop them.

However, Gambit also had a point, this next job was a big one, that provided the bulk of the campaign budget for three senators, and if they could just do this one, they'd throw a spanner in their works good and proper. And that temptation was too hard to pass up. She'd follow this through, no matter what her misgivings.

-


	4. Always Together

The raid was going well. Gambit had fixed the alarms so they wouldn't go off while they were on the premises and Callisto hadn't needed an invitation to go in.

They were almost finished when the room started to fill with fog.

"It's them, isn't it?"

"Gambit t'ink so."

"So what's the plan?"

"Start running, Gambit will cover you."

"I'm not leaving you to get caught."

"Listen, they expect Gambit. So we give them Gambit, no point both of us being caught in it up to our necks."

"Very well." Callisto made for the exit just as a fog filled up the room, Gambit hoped she got out before the fog got so thick that you couldn't see anything.

"Gambit?"

"Oui, mon chere."

"I had hoped I wouldn't find you here. I was hoping they were wrong and there was someone else with the expertise to do all this."

"Non, Storm, dere is only Gambit dat is this good."

"Are you willing to come quietly?"

"Oui."

"I'm so glad you said that Cajun, didn't want to stick you full of holes." Wolverine stepped out of the fog, and was joined by Colossus and Nightcrawler. At least his Rogue wasn't here.

They took him to the back of the factory where they had hidden the Blackbird. Gambit was about to enter when a few smoke bombs blew up. He could feel someone coming through the smoke and trying to untie him as Storm tried to blow away the smoke. It had to be Callisto.

"Gambit thought he told you to run."

"What can I say, I don't leave anyone behind." She finished untying him and they made a break for it. Callisto led him to the manhole cover she had left open for them to make their escape. The X-men wouldn't think to look there, and even if they did, they wouldn't know the layout as well as Callisto did.

Except, and Gambit bit back all the expletives he was thinking of saying, there was someone else who wasn't too bad at doing that, and she'd do it. And he really didn't want to see Marrow, didn't want to have to explain himself to her.

The thinking at least meant that he wasn't too surprised to see a dark shadow slouched against the wall of the exit onto the main sewer tunnel. Life never did go the way he wanted it to.

"I was expecting both of you. Everyone else seemed to have missed that two robbers were reported. I didn't know anyone else who moved the way you do, Callisto." Marrow had seen some of the security footage, and both the speed and the stance gave Callisto away. Marrow stepped forward. "I'm not even going to ask what the hell you're doing working together. Everyone else thought I'd gone mad when I said you must have teamed up. They never told me why they thought that, care to explain?"

Gambit really didn't want to explain and Callisto was just staring at Marrow. This wasn't going to end well. Marrow radioed in that she had found them both, and they just shrugged at each other. At least Callisto didn't seem like she was going to make him tell Marrow the truth.


End file.
